Saturday, September 19, 2015

Bad News/Good News RE Voting Rights

The painted Republican ponies on the State Board of Elections continue to go round-'n'-round, but certain key voter rights in North Carolina remain in effect -- so far, at least -- for this fall's municipal elections.

1. Not surprising at all, the three Republicans on the State Board of Elections voted yesterday to defy Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens' ruling last year ... as they voted 3-2 to accept the Aceto-Eggers Early Voting plan for this fall's elections ... thus denying once again a polling site on the Appalachian State University campus and (in order to seem consistent?) also denying an Early Voting site for Blowing Rock, which had requested one.

2. Until Federal District Court Judge Schroeder rules in the voting rights challenge to NC's new voting law (the case argued in Winston-Salem this past summer) -- and this may come as a surprise -- Same Day Registration during Early Voting and out-of-precinct voting on Election Day are BOTH STILL in effect for the 2015 municipal elections.

To use Same Day Registration (only available during Early Voting), a voter must provide one of the following identifying documents to an election official at any Early Voting location (which in Watauga's case, will be only at the county courthouse):

NC driver’s licenseOther government photo IDUtility bill, bank statement, or payroll stub with name and current addressStudent photo ID with a school document showing the student’s addressAny document from any government agency with the voter’s name and current address

Out-of-precinct voting means that on Election Day a voter can cast a ballot that will be counted (at least in part) at any voting precinct in his or her county.

Again, a court ruling could change this situation, but for now Same Day Registration and out-of-precinct voting are the law of the land.

about

J.W. Williamson was the founding editor in 1972 of the Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review, which he edited until July of 2000. He has taught college classes in Appalachian history, cultural politics, and literature, and he has lectured widely on the pop-culture history of "Appalachia" in the American consciousness. His books include Interviewing Appalachia, Southern Mountaineers in Silent Films, and Hillbillyland: What the Mountains Did to the Movies and What the Movies Did to the Mountains. He has won the Thomas Wolfe Award given by the Western North Carolina Historical Society, the Laurel Leaves Award given by the Appalachian Consortium, a special Weatherford Award given by Berea College, and the Cratis Williams-James Brown Award given by the Appalachian Studies Association.

The views expressed on WataugaWatch are solely those of J.W. Williamson or individual contributors and are not necessarily shared nor endorsed by the Watauga County Democratic Party nor by any other adults of sound mind in this or any other universe.